Rhodiola crenulata, one of the well-known Tibetan medicinal herb, is mainly grown in high-altitude regions of Tibet, Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in China. In the past few years, increasing published studies on pharmacological activities of R. crenulata, have strengthened our understanding into its active ingredient composition, pharmacological activity and mechanism of action. The findings also provided strong evidences supporting the important medicinal and economical values of R. crenulata. Meanwhile, some Rhodiola species are becoming endangered because of overexploitation and environmental destruction. However, little is known about the genetic and genomic information of any Rhodiola species.
Here, we reported the first draft assembly of R. crenulata genome, which was 344.5 Mb (25.7Mb Ns), accounting for 82% of the estimated genome size, with the scaffold N50 length of 144.7 kb and the contig N50 length of 25.4 kb. The R. crenulata genome was not only highly heterozygous but also highly repetitive with ratios of 1.12% and 66.15%, respectively, based on the k-mer analysis. Furthermore, 226.6 Mb transposable elements were detected, of which 77.03% were long terminal repeats. In total, 31,517 protein-coding genes were identified, capturing 86.72% of expected plant genes in BUSCO. Additionally, 79.73% of protein-coding genes were functionally annotated.R. crenulata is an important medicinal plant and also a potentially interesting model species for studying the adaptability of Rhodiola species to extreme environments. The genomic sequences of R. crenulata will be useful for understanding the evolutionary mechanism of stress resistance gene and biosynthesis pathways of the different medicinal ingredients for example, salidroside, in R. crenulata.